For some reason i want to get a rear suspension comuter bike going but with vee brakes. I know the ginat nrs series had v brake mounts, are there any other similar options of similar or better quality/weight to look out for. Thanks

Someone on here has an old marin FRS with full mudguards, that would be a good commute option as they pedalled well, cheap s/h and the pre 01’s mostly all had v-brake mounts.

Old Marin (pick any model)
Trek VRX
Trek Y-bikes (nooooo!)
Old Orange Mr XC/Sub 3/very old Patriot
Cannondale SuperV
Old Santa Cruz heckler/Superlight
Old Spesh FSTs
Kona MokoMoko/ManoMano etc.
Old Turner XCE
Intense Tracer
Ellsworth Joker/ISIS/Truth
…hang on, I don’t know why I’m putting a list together as the answer is pretty much any full suss frame built in the 90s, and some that survived into the early 00’s with rim brake mounts. Go an peruse the Retrobike ‘readers bikes’ section of the forums or look through the catalogue archives for more ideas.

If you’re definitely going to do this then I suggest finding something that is either single pivot (Marin/Orange/SantaCruz/Cannondale) or if multi-link a model that uses standard sized cartridge bearings and not proprietary bushings or odd axles as finding obscure spares for 90’s bouncers can be a headache, and you’ll need them as bushing life was shocking back then!

Any other special requirements that could help narrow it down?
Is this for actually commuting offroad? If not and it’s for road use then you’ll get better comfort from big supple tyres than a spring under your backside.

Can I ask why V brakes? Only asking because I ran a commuter bike like this but eventually swapped to cable discs and wished I’d done it sooner – much more controlled braking in dry or wet and no rim wear.

I’m also intrigued as to the reasons for wanting v-brakes.

But the answer is as above, get something from the 90s/early 2000s.

Another vote against v brakes for commuting (I’m assuming you’re going offroad, if not then I vote against full sus 🙂 )
I tried commuting xc on my pompy for a while, the wear rate of the brake blocks on the mini Vs was ridiculous, couple of pairs a week (had full guards fitted btw).
Unless you are lucky enough to have a dry commute in which case away you go.
Lots of cheap deals about for the brakes, I know wheels may be more of a problem.

Simply a ludite. I like square taper bottom brackets too, because i can fix them without special tools and replace bits with standard off the shelf parts. Plus ive got some wheels and brakes lying around already.
Its probably going to be an nrs tbh. I want it for road with 1.3 slicks. Its got to be fast and glide over all the little bumps. 90s bikes all look a bit clunky next to the nrs.

Just get simple discs, even road bikes are going to disc. You v-brake requirement will lead you to having to compromise on the rest of the bike as most manufacturers will be if the view no one wants v brakes except on the cr@pest models

Edit just seen you have wheels already, so it’s a frame you want ?

NRSs don’t do anything on little bumps…

Well, not if you set them up in a way that’ll be good on the road and as they’re intended – eg locked out unless you hit something reasonable. I had one and thought it was pretty crap unless you were really looking for a hardtail that would offer some protection against big hits but it certainly didn’t offer much in terms of comfort for smaller stuff.

There’s being a luddite (sq taper does have it’s plus points – I still have bikes with them – though IME properly set up HT2 are fine) and there’s making your life difficult. V-brakes falls into the latter category…

Or a soft tail of some kind. its just the suspension seat post on at the moment changes the seat crank length each bump and i think its not helping the lumber spine to be stable.

I still don’t understand why you’d not just get a decent but few years old full susser that has discs as that’ll give you a lot more options if what you’re really after is something to help your back.

It depends on the deal frame or bike depending. Not good news that the nrs doesnt do small bumps well then.

Marin is the way to go.

If you want to smooth out the bumps just get a rigid bike and stick big apples on it. Floaty.

But will a full sus with narrow tyres be more of a whippet than a rigid with big fat heavy tyres, maybe a light weight fat tyre on the rear only of a rigid frame?

Not sure how luddite = full suspension, cable discs are easy to take care of compared to rear suspension?
If you just want to take the edge of then look for an older softail design e.g. Moots YBB, or a nice tidy Proflex frame.

Might try the tyre a wide folding schwalbe kojac at a lower psi but keep eyes open for a decent easyish to service frame or bike. 5’9 30″ inside leg in oxford btw. Yes Moots ybb, trek or canondale soft tail (in that order) in right size might be better than a nrs for this.

Maybe keep an eye on retrobike if yo’re definitely keen on the V brakes e.g. theres a Psyclwerks wild hare in the FS forum currently.

If you go with discs you can do 29 wheels and cross tyres.

I want it for road …. Its got to be fast and glide over all the little bumps

In my opinion* you’re going about this backwards then, big volume light weight supple tyre will be both faster and more comfy than a higher pressure narrow tyre, although 1.3 isn’t that small, but something 38-44c or 1.75 inch + with a nice light casing will be much better, Compass, Panaracer Pasela, Kojacks, Big Apples, Grand Bois, Michelin Wild Run’R etc. and get over the idea that riding on the road needs high pressures to be fast.

Suspension doesn’t really do much on the road as the bumps are too small unless you run it superdooper soft, and have a very low stiction shock, but by that point you’ll be bouncing around like anything anyway and not enjoying it. A bigger softer tyre is much better for small bumps than a shock/suspension, and there is a massive difference between a 1.small inch slick @80-100 PSI and a nice 42-44mm @ 40-60PSI, what pressure are you running your 1.3s at?

There’s a reason most ultra endurance road riders, and big Audaxers use what they use, and it ‘aint a full suss bike, they need to be comfy for 500-1000k+ in one ride, they know a little bit about what works.

I like square taper bottom brackets too, because i can fix them without special tools and replace bits with standard off the shelf parts

I’m all for ST, but that’s not a good argument for it, Square taper requires a crank extractor and whopping great 8mm allen keys to look after on the road, external (shimano) needs nothign more thana 5mm. External BB’s with replaceable bearings are a lot more serviceable than cartridge ST BB’s, if you have an open ball ST BB then that’s loads more faff to keep adjusted and well lubed. and External HT2 cranks and BB’s are not exactly hard to come by for parts, especially in UK/Europe/US etc.

I still prefer and use ST on most of my bikes, but lack of special tools and being able to fix on the go are not reasons why.

*so feel free to ignore it!

I run the tyres at 80psi.
Maybe something was lost in the writing of it , i already have the tools and knowledge of how to properly set up and change st bottom brackets and v brakes( all sealed) and all 7 of the bikes in the garden use the same ones so its simple, got the bits there anything needs doing it gets done. One day i will get something modern. might get nicked here though as 200 bikes per week go from Oxford and then id need insurance…..
The suspension seat post is so good because i can keep pedalling in the seat over rough roads in comfort and not have to be constantly scanning the road for bumps and getting out of the seat and or avoinding all the bumps. But it could be making a back problem not heal like it might because the crank lenght keeps changeing. Then again maybe not might be helping it, but its worth trying something different now to see if its better as quite alot of miles get done each week. Schwalbe Kojack folding in 2.00 comming soon. Possibly followed by trek stp400 frame if a medium turns up. Something wierd about the trek stp bb widths though will have to check that again.

I must say, I doubt that the suspension seatpost is the cause of your back not healing unless it’s really way too soft.

Simply a ludite.

who wants FS for road. Square taper I’m with you. Having spares and knowledge of a product is another plus. TBH Vs on the road still aren’t as good as discs (cable discs are easy to run IME and deore hydros are proper cheap) but I’d put up with them before I’d put up with squishy parts on a predominantly road bike.

suspension = Check
V brakes = Check

on a serious note, why not get a old rigid steel mtb and fit some nice wide smooth tyres (1.5 or wider Schwalbe marathon, big apple etc etc) + mudguards and a rack.

makes a cheap comfy robust commuter and not that desirable to thieves.

BTW upping your wheelsize is probably better than upping tyre size, my steel road frame with 700×23 tyres felt smoother than my steel mtb with 26×1.125″ tyres. My cross bike with 700×32 feels even smootherer (and still feels quicker than the mtb)
But unless you are swapping wheels on the same bike and riding back to back it’s going to be tough to get proper comparison.

The suggestion of the Moulton by Rootes 1 is good, but expensive.

The old Moultons had a long wheelbase, and that combined with the suspension front and rear made it one of the most comfortable bikes I have ridden.

But these days I go for the route suggested by Amedias, large diameter wheel with big tyres, ie 29er with 2.35″ Big Apples. Our roads up here in the Highlands are often quite pitted or damaged after winter, and this combo allows me to go straight over the worst the roads can chuck at me.

If you’re going FS I’d suggest replacing the rear shock with a piece of scaffold tube or similar, because its bloody horrible riding an FS bike on the road,

Forget the rear suspension, I wouldn’t want to cope with servicing a fork on a commuter. It’ll get full of salty cack, seize up and then you’ll be stuck with a heavy rear suspension only bike.

Big tyres (don’t have to be *that* big) on a rigid bike is the way to go imho. You can still go V brake on a cx bike or rigid MTB.

That said, variety is the spice of life and it’s your bike so do what you want and have fun.

Before you spend/waste any money on the FS option, go to your local bike shop and demo a good quality modern hybrid. Not all of the many thousands of commuters using them are wrong.